Babhruvahaṇa and the Pretas

The Garuḍa Mahā Purāṇa, in Chapter 9 of the Dharma Khaṇḍa, tells how King Babhruvahaṇa met a hundred pretas (restless spirits of the dead) at a tīrtha (holy bathing place). Their leader was a former Vaiśya named Devagupta, now called Pretavāhaṇa. Bhagavān Vishṇu told the king to perform the Nārāyaṇa Bali rite for all one hundred. All of them were freed at the same time.

Babhruvahaṇa’s tīrtha-yātrā

Babhruvahaṇa was a king who followed dharma and was devoted to Bhagavān Vishṇu. Bhagavān Vishṇu came to him in a dream. He told the king to make a tīrtha-yātrā (pilgrimage). It was not only for the king’s own bhakti (devotion). It had a purpose that would be shown to him when he arrived.

Babhruvahaṇa trusted the guidance of Bhagavān Vishṇu completely. He set out with a small company of brāhmaṇas and ministers.

The meeting at the tīrtha

The king came to a great tīrtha on the bank of a sacred river. He bathed (snāna) and sat in evening meditation. As the light faded, he felt a terrible presence at the edge of the tīrtha. It was not one being or two but a crowd.

One hundred pretas had gathered at the water’s edge. They were thin and hollow-eyed. Their bodies showed the suffering and the awareness that belong to the life of a preta.

At their head stood Pretavāhaṇa. He had a dignified way of standing, a trace of the authority he had held in life. He spoke to Babhruvahaṇa: “O king, Bhagavān Vishṇu has sent you here. We have been waiting for you.”

Devagupta’s account

Babhruvahaṇa asked Pretavāhaṇa to tell his history. The preta said:

“In my last birth I was Devagupta, a Vaiśya with good means. I was fortunate. My family had gathered great wealth over many generations. My trade did well. My storehouses were always full, and my house was large and well fed. I had everything a householder needs for a life of dharma: wealth, health, a respected family and time. Bhagavān Vishṇu gave me every condition in which a householder could do well in dharma.

“But I did not use this wealth for dharma. I gave no go-dāna (gift of a cow). I did not feed brāhmaṇas. I did not perform śrāddha (the rite for ancestors) for my forefathers. I did not light lamps at temples. When beggars came to my door, I sent them away. When the village temple needed repair, I gave nothing. When a poor man’s daughter needed things for her marriage, I kept my purse shut.

“I told myself: ‘I will give after one more good season. I will give when my son’s work is settled. I will give after the new harvest.’ The seasons came and went. My son’s work grew. The harvests were good. And I gave nothing. In me the power to feel the hunger of others had dried up from long disuse.

“When I died, I had nothing to show on the side of dāna (giving) and nothing on the side of dharma. My life was all gathering and no giving. I had taken from the world and given nothing back. You see the result before you.”

The hundred pretas

The other ninety-nine pretas behind Devagupta had much the same history. Each had lived in some measure of wealth without using it in proportion for dharma. Some had been brāhmaṇas who performed rites for a fee but never gave dāna themselves. Some had been kings who collected taxes but never performed great yajñas (fire rituals) or gave to the poor. Some had been merchants, some farmers, some craftsmen. The thread was the same in all. They had lived mainly in gathering and enjoying, with no outward flow through dāna, śrāddha, yajña and service in dharma.

Pretavāhaṇa explained: “We hundred are drawn together not by blood or by country but by the likeness of our karma. We have become a company of suffering. We share the little understanding we have, and we keep each other aware through the long life as pretas. We have waited at this tīrtha because we knew that freedom would come here, sent by Bhagavān Vishṇu.”

The instruction of Bhagavān Vishṇu

Babhruvahaṇa was moved by what he heard. He sat silent for a while, and then he prayed. In his inner vision Bhagavān Vishṇu appeared and said:

“You have been sent here to perform Nārāyaṇa Bali for these hundred pretas. The tīrtha-yātrā I told you to make has brought you to this moment. Their karma has been used up by the length of their suffering. They are now ready for freedom. You are the one through whom it will come. Perform the rite with all the brāhmaṇas in your company. Offer a piṇḍa (rice ball) for each of the hundred.”

The Nārāyaṇa Bali

Babhruvahaṇa called together the brāhmaṇas of his company and told them the task. They saw how unusual the occasion was and agreed at once. They gathered tila (sesame), rice, sacred water, darbha grass, clay for the figures, cloth, and food for feeding the brāhmaṇas (brāhmaṇa-bhojana).

One hundred clay figures were made. Pretavāhaṇa called out a name for each one from among the company. Prāṇa-pratishṭhā (the calling of life into the figure) was done for each. Each was given the pañchāmṛta-snāna (bath with five sweet substances). The ten piṇḍas of the daśagātra sequence were offered for each figure. Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa was called into the place of the rite with the Purusha-sūkta. The main bali offering was made with a prayer for the freedom of each preta by name.

The rite lasted the whole night. At dawn the figures were taken to the river and let go into the water.

The freedom of the pretas

The last figure melted in the current of the river. Then the hundred preta forms at the edge of the tīrtha began to change. It began with those who had come last. Each form grew bright and full. The thin bodies became healthy and shining. The hollow eyes filled with light. The matted hair became radiant. One by one, each preta was freed.

Pretavāhaṇa, who was Devagupta, changed last. He stood before Babhruvahaṇa in his freed form and said: “King, in my life I did not give even a cup of water to a thirsty man. You have given me moksha itself. The imbalance of my karma is set right. It is not by my own late understanding, for that is not enough. It is by the grace of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, working through your hands. Tell the people of your kingdom what you have seen here. The wealth that is not given away through dāna in this life becomes the want that is suffered in the next.”

With these last words, all one hundred freed jīvas (living beings) rose upward, and their forms melted into light. The tīrtha was silent. Babhruvahaṇa sat on the bank for a long time before he went on with his tīrtha-yātrā.

Sources

• Garuḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Dharma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 9